Mediapedia

By Greg Albert

il paints had a corner on the art materials market

for hundreds of years, but in the mid-20th century,
a formidable opponent arrived on the scene. Acrylics
have since joined oil and watercolor as one of the most
popular painting media.
Acrylics are water-based, dry quickly, dont require
any toxic solvents and can be applied to a wide range
of surfaces. When dry, acrylics are lightfast and permanent, and the surface becomes strong and flexible.
Acrylics clean up with simple soap and water.
In addition to paintings, you can use acrylics for
craft projects made of wood, canvas, leather and many
other surfaces. Acrylics can be applied with brushes,
rollers and painting knives; sprayed with an airbrush;
poured, spattered or dribbled. You can modify the consistency of acrylic paint with a bewildering variety of
gels, pastes and mediums.
Because of the properties of its polymer base,
acrylic paint can be used in thick applications similar to oils; the paints can also be thinned with water or
medium and used in a manner comparable to watercolors. When used with gels, pastes and mediums, acrylics
can create effects unattainable with oils or watercolors.
In fact, acrylics lend themselves to so many techniques,
the possibilities are practically endless.

Mediapedia is an encyclopedia of art media. The Artists

Magazine will prole a dierent medium in each issue for
the rest of 2009. Next up: oil pastels.

March 2009 www.artistsmagazine.com

What is Mediapedia?

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Safety and cleanup

Acrylics are very safe to use, but certain pigments used in
artists paints are toxic regardless of medium, so basic precautions should be taken:
Keep the paint out of your eyes, mouth and lungs. Not eating, drinking or smoking while painting will help you avoid accidental ingestion.
Wash hands thoroughly after use.
Use eye protection if there is a risk of splashing.
As with all art materials, acrylics should be kept away from small children,
and young students should be properly supervised. Check for the AP (approved
product) seal on paints for children.
Rinse brushes in water while using them, and clean them with soap and
water at the end of a painting session. Dont allow acrylic paint to dry on your
brushes; the dried paint can be removed with solvents, but its a chore worth
avoiding. Remove dried paint from a palette by scraping or peeling it o or by
letting the palette soak in water.

Chemistry
acrylics lack the brilliance and purity of oils because of
the murky polymer emulsion.
Most pigments used for acrylics are the same or
similar to those used in traditional oils or watercolors,
except for a few that are incompatible with the polymer
emulsion binder. Acrylics are completely intermixable
and compatible within a manufacturers product line;
most brands can be intermixed, but their properties,
such as gloss finishes, may be altered.
Acrylic paint becomes porous when dry, so a
final application of varnish is recommended after the
painting has dried for several months. A mineral spirit
acrylic varnish is a good choice, as it can be removed
later if needed. Storage of paintings in cold temperatures is not recommended; the paint will become
fragile.

www.artistsmagazine.com

March 2009

All paint is made of pigments, a binder and usually

some other additives. The binder is what locks the
pigments in place when the paint is dry. In the case
of acrylics, the pigments are suspended in a synthetic
binder that forms a film when the water evaporates.
(Oils use organic binders such as linseed oil; watercolors use gum arabic, another plant product.)
Its the properties of the binder that make acrylic
paints so different from other media. The acrylic binder
is quick-drying, making acrylic paint ideal for layering, applying thick impastos, glazing and scumbling.
Because the acrylic dries quickly through evaporation
of the water, a film will form within a matter of minutes, though a thick layer of paint may take months to
dry completely. Once the drying process is complete,
the paint is chemically stable.
The acrylic base is a milky, translucent liquid when
wet, which can make acrylic paint appear a bit lighter
wet than when dry (see images below). Some critics say

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Must-Have
Tools
Brushes: Synthetic materials such as nylon are the best
choice for brushes. Stiff brushes are good for applications of thick paint; soft and supple ones are good for
applications of thinned paint. Acrylics are harder on
brushes made of animal hair, which can swell and lose
its spring when soaked in water.
Palette: The acrylic painter needs a palette thats flat
and impervious to water. Plastic palettes designed for
acrylics are available; some have lids or sealable compartments to prevent drying. Enameled butcher trays,
thick glass, and plastic cutting boards also work well.
Aluminum pans from frozen pies and melamine plates
can work in a pinch. Avoid wooden palettes, which
absorb water.
Surfaces: One of the advantages to working with
acrylics is that you can apply them to almost any stable,
nongreasy surface. Water-absorbent surfaces such as
wood need to be sealed beforehand.
Preferred painting surfaces include
artists canvas, hardboard, fiberboard
and heavy (400-lb) watercolor paper
Can you intermix oils and water-based acrylics?
that has been prepared with a good
Nothey are chemically incompatible.
quality acrylic dispersion primer.
Using prestretched gessoed
Can you paint oils over acrylics?
canvases saves time, but theyre often
Yes, but the paintings layers may become unstable because the oils may not
not of archival quality.
Water container: A large, unbreakable
adhere adequately to the acrylic beneath. Also, the oils and acrylics will respond
dierently to environmental conditions such as humidity and temperature,
water container is a must. Change the
which could cause the layers to separate.
water frequently so you dont contaminate the colors on your palette.
Can you use traditional oil-painting techniques with acrylics?
The quick drying time of acrylics will require you to modify your oil painting techniques somewhat. Wet-into-wet techniques (wet paint applied to or
blended with wet paint) are more dicult with acrylics, but scumbling and drybrush techniques are easier.

FAQs

Are acrylics less permanent than oils?

Although research on acrylics is less abundant, the medium seems to be as permanent as oils. Acrylics are chemically stable when cured, but, as with all paint
media, theyre only as permanent as the surface theyre painted on.

March 2009 www.artistsmagazine.com

Can you use traditional watercolor techniques with acrylics?

Most traditional watercolor techniques can be used with acrylics, since both
media are relatively quick-drying. Just as watercolors of the same name by
dierent manufacturers produce dierent staining or granulating eects, acrylic
colors will dier from traditional watercolors. Also, unlike watercolors, acrylics
cant be rehydrated once dry.

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A Quick Guide to

micaceous iron oxide

Mediums, Pastes,
Gels and Additives
Most brands of acrylics come in a range of viscosities
or bodies. Soft or medium body is fluid, creamy and
smooth; heavy is thicker, buttery and retains brushstrokes; extra or super heavy is very thick and ideal for
impasto applications. The following products can be
used with acrylics of any viscosity to create an almost
limitless variety of effects.

Mediums are mixed with paint for thinning and glazing,

and can be used as an adhesive for collage and mixed
media work.
Matte mediumdries flat without a glossy shine
Gloss mediumdries with a glossy shine
Blending mediumthins the paint while increasing
open time (the time the paint is wet) to aid blending
Flow improvermakes the paint flow evenly and
quickly

Clockwise from top:

light molding paste,
glass bead gel, heavy
gloss gel, ne interference
violet, coarse pumice gel

Pastes and gels are mixed with paint to add texture or to

increase or retain thickness of the paint while adding
transparency and lengthening drying time.
Gel mediumthickens and adds transparency
Heavy geladds texture, allowing the paint to hold
its peaks
Modeling pastea very thick additive that allows the
artist to create highly textured effects that dry to a
flexible film
Retardant is mixed with acrylics to slow the drying time
and is useful for wet-into-wet techniques; too much
may result in a film that never dries properly.
Varnishes are applied to finished acrylic work to provide a protective, dust-resistant film; some reduce damage from ultraviolet light. Varnishing with a nonacrylic
material, such as mineral spirit acrylic varnish, allows
you to remove the layer later, if needed.
Many other additives are available, offering the artist
a lifetime of experimentation and discovery.
Iridescent colors
Metallic colors
Interference colors
Glass bead gel
Pumice gel
String gel
Natural sand
Pouring medium

Tips and techniques

Dont overthin acrylics with water. Overthinning
results in a deposit of pigment without enough acrylic
binder to create a stable paint lm. Acrylics shouldnt
be thinned with more than about 30 percent water.
Less expensive grades of acrylics by major manufacturers are good choices when rst trying acrylics, but as your
skill improves, move on to professional-quality paints.
Dont put high-quality paint on poor-quality surfaces.
Get to know one manufacturers line of acrylic paints
and related products well so you know how they work
together; then experiment with other brands.

www.artistsmagazine.com

March 2009

Greg Albert, author of The Simple Secret

of Better Painting (North Light Books), lives
in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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